1. Technical Field
This invention relates to planting equipment and, more particularly, to a meter for dispensing a product such as seeds and/or fertilizer.
2. Background
Pneumatic planters having a plurality of planting units are well known for planting seeds upon or in the ground at various depths and spacing. Each planting unit has one or more seed meters. Some meters allow more than one input such as a combination of seed and fertilizer. Air flows into the meter into a pressurized chamber defined between the inside of a rotating seed metering disc and the meter. A portion of the chamber defines a seed sump for receiving seeds into the meter from a hopper. The metering disc has pockets, holes or combinations thereof and, as the metering disc rotates, air is used to singulate and meter the seeds.
One or more of the planting units of the planter may be rotated or raised into the air when transporting the planter or when avoiding obstacles when operating in the field. When the meters are raised, the chamber of the meter overfills with seeds which causes the meter to malfunction. Then when planting operations resume by lowering the meter into its planting position, the field becomes overplanted due to the accumulation of extra seeds within the meter.
Some meters have shutoff systems such as a sliding shutoff gate to restrict the flow of seed from a hopper into the seed sump of the meter. However, every time the operator encounters an obstacle or prepares for transporting the planter, the sliding gate of every planting unit must be manually operated one at a time. Also, known gates do not prevent seeds already received in the seed sump from entering other areas of the chamber of the meter or from entering the air duct to the meter when the meter is moved from its planting position.